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FUNERAI 



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PRESIDENT LINCOLN, 



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Delivered at the Capitol in Omaha. N. T., 



WEDNESDAY, APlilL 



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REV. F. M. EMQrfCMK: K 












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CORRESPONDENCE. 



Omaha, Nebraska, April 20th, 1865. 
Rev. F. M. Dimmick, Dear Sir: — I enclose to you the following communication, 
numerously signed by your fellow citizens, requesting a copy of your funeral sermon, 
delivered on the H»th inst., for publication. Hoping that you will return a favorable 
reply at your earliest convenience, 

I remain yours, truly. 

R. S. KNOX. 

Omaha, Nebraska, April 20th, 1865. 
Rev. F. M. Dimmick, Dear Sir: — We, the undersigned, citizens of Omaha, feeling 
that it is due to the great solemnity of the occasion, and to the sad bereavement 
which has caused our community to mourn as one people ; and believing it would be 
gratifying to our fellow citizens here and elsewhere, in the Territory, to know what 
was expressed by you in your funeral discourse delivered on the 19th inst, commem- 
orating the private and public life of a beloved President, assassinated, would most 
respectfully request of you, a copy of that discourse for publication. 
Yours, very respectfully, 

Rev. T. B. LEMON, N. P. ISAACS, 

Rev H. W. KUHNS, THOS. MARTIN. 

Rev. WM. M. SMITH. JOHN H. BRACK KN. 

GEO. R. SMITH. C. H. DOWNS, 

DAN'L GANTT. MILTON ROGERS. 

JOHN RITCHIE. ALBERT TUCKER, 

A. KOUNTZE, JOHN M< CORMICK, 

F. DOUTHITT, FERDINAND BUNN. 

L. J. KENNARD. GEO. B. LAKE, 

P. HUGUS, E. EST A BROOK, 

W. H. LAWTON. JAMES FORSYTH. 

O. P. HURFORD. R. S. KNOX. 

Omaha, Nebraska Territory, April 21. 1865. 
R. S. Kxox, Esq., My Dear S'rr : — Your communication of yesterday, enclosing 
quite a general request on the part of the citizens of this place, for a copy of my 
sermon on the funeral occasion of President Lincoln, for the press, is betore me. — 
The discourse was prepared in great haste, without any thought of publication. But 
if my* fellow citizens deem it fitted to further, in the least, the great cause of truth 
and righteousness, it is entirely at their disposal. 

Believe me most truly yours, 

F. M. DIMMICK 



FUNERAL SERMON. 






•■ Know ye hot thai there is a prfaftee and a great man fallen this dav in Israel ? l! 

II Sum,*,/':), :»„S. 

Tliis was the exclamation of king David on the death of Aimer. — 
Joab "hafi treacherously sent for Aimer, of whom lie was jealous, and 
under the pretext of a private conference with him, at the gate of the 
city in Hebron, he slew him. Like a coward and a villain, under the 
color of a friendly interview, he rose up against Abuer and assassinated 
him. And as in the ease of the first murder <m the records of time, the 
better man is killed and the assassin lives. So to-day we are called 
to write one of the darkest pages of our nation's history. To-day we 
Kan exclaim, in the language of the anointed king of Israel, on the 
death of Saul and Jonathan: wk How are the mighty fallen !" The chief 
executive of a great nation — the head — the father — of thirty millions 
of people, has been stricken down by the hand of the assassin ! A 
nation is called, to-day. to mourn its loss. 

kk When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice : " but when 
a good man dies the hearts of the people are sad. When Moses died 
the children oFIsrael wep1 and mourned for him, in the plain's of Moab, 
thirty days. 

That the death of great and useful men should be particularly noticed, 
is equally the dictate of reason ami revelation. But neither examples 
nor arguments are necessary to awaken the sympathies of a grateful 
people on such occasions. The death of public benefactors surcharges 
the heart, and it naturally and spontaneously disburdens itself in a flow 
of sorrows. 



To ajo l>ack only a few years, — such was the death of President 
Harrison and of President Taylors But such, also, and more peculiarly 
-o. is the death of Pi<ksii>kn t Lin< oi.x. The tidings of the former 
moved, us — saddened our hearts — and the nation was in tears. But the 
uccotiiit <>f tile latter, blighted our joys, eliilled for a time our hopes, 
and curdled our blood ! The former died in a good ©lid age, the latter 
was cut off in the midst of his years and his usefulness. The former 
wars a customary Providence — they died at home a natural death, sur- 
rounded l>y their families and their friends :ind \ve saw in it the hand of 
(rod, and bowed submissively to His sovereign pleasure. The latter is not 
•ttcnded with these southing circumstances ; though permitted in the 
dee]>. mysterious j»rovidenees of the . great Disposer of events, still, 
humanly speaking, we see little vet, but the hetidish malice and hand 
of the asv.issin. 

His fall owes its existence to the same spirit which has robbed us of 
tens of thousands of our noblest born in this terrible contiiet. It is 
marked by violence, and is the work <d' mad deliberation. The time, 
the place, the circumstances, are arranged with satanic ingenuity and 
barbarous coolness. The deadly weapon is tired in an hour of quiet, 
and in an unexpected moment, whilst surrounded by friends. And the 
event has proven that it was too well directed. It is the natural fruit 
of that envenomed upas tree, which has poisoned and dried up the life 
blood of society, and which, so help us (iod, shall speedilv be hewn 
down, and dug up. root and branch ! 

O, how sad it is that our beloved, our good, our true-hearted Presi- 
dent should die thus ! Humiliating end of illustrious greatness. "How 
are the mighty fallen T And shall the mighty still fall thus;' Shall 
the noblest lives be sacrificed, and the best 'blood shed by the hand of 
the assassin? (_) "Tell it not in Gram : publish it not in the streets of 
6T Askalon ; lest the daughters of the Philistines — our enemies — re 1 
pice:" lest the hosts of darkness shout in their fiendish triumph ! 

Abkaham Li^coi.x, whose death we deeply mourn to-day. was born 
in Kentucky, and while yet a boy. his father migrated to Illinois; and 
there in a new country, amid the hardships and privations incident to a 
pioneer life, he had his early training. There he learned many lessons 
from the rough side of nature : and there he acquired that habit of 
thorough investigation and self-reliance which has been a peculiar char- 
acteristic of his public life. He was elected to the State Legislature, 
and to Congress, and showed himself, especially, in his political contest 
with Stephen A. Douglas, ail honest man, a true-hearted patriot, and 
a statesman of no common ability, no ordinary logical power and 



acumen, and a politick opponent, wielding the great sledge hammer of 
truth and right, against whose Mows no public aspirant or competitor 
could make successful headway. In the autumn of the year 1 860 lie 
was the people's choice for the highest position in the nation. With 
his subsequent history, your are all familiar. How, for four long years, 
he stood patiently at the helm of our great ship of state, amid the fury 
of the storm, and steadied her course, and headed her onward, whilst 
the tierce breakers rose on every side, threatening destruction to all we 
hold dear and sacred. Again, by the voice of the people he was placed 
at the head of the nation, that he might see us, with flowing sails, and 
favoring breezes, in the still waters, bei/mid the breakers and the storm. 
And last Friday, the 1 ith day of April, as we were fast entering the 
clear deep sea with its cheering sky — just four years after the bloody 
inauguration of the Slaveholder's Rebellion by the firing on Fort 
Sumter — the very day, that old flag we love, which had been dishon- 
ored and trailed in the dust by the hands of perjured traitors, was 
to be re-unfurled by the same Major Anderson, (now Major General) 
who then carried it away to save it from further insult and shame — the 
very day it was to be again east to the breeze over that deeply scarred 
fort — our beloved President was struck down by the hand of an assas- 
sin : one, embodying the spirit, and carrying out the designs of that 
same rebel power. Fit sequel to this long quadrennial storm of treason, 
malice, revenge and blood ! O, how unwise ! How inconsiderate, 
how impolitic ! They have killed, the}' have assassinated, they have 
murdered their best and their truest friend ! 

O, how true that the mysterious roll of human destiny, written in 
Heaven, but slowly unfolded, line after line, by the unerring hand of 
Time, has many things in reserve, for us all, of which we little dream. 
And nations, like individuals — we have learned in our history of late — 
are sometimes shocked by the advent of calamities and afflictions, as 
sudden and unlooked for as they are great. No one who has beheld 
this city, and the cities through the land, during the List few days, can 
doubt that some great and appalling stroke has fallen on the nation. 
A great man, indeed, and a prince, has fallen in our Israel. The Chief 
Magistrate of this Republic, to whom his loyal fellow citizens, had the 
second time, almost unanimously confided the high executive duties of 
the country, has been suddenly taken from us by violence. Ripe in 
honors, and in the full possession of health, and with the promise of 
many years more of faithful ami patriotic services before him, he was 
treacherously assassinated. The Comtnander-inChief of all our armies, 



and the statesman occupying as proud a position as this world offers to 
human hopes, has been struck down in a crisis which demanded all his 
firmness and all his wisdom. And in that sad hour, as his family and 
his friends stood around him, they could well exclaim : 

"Can this be death? — then what is life or death? 

■• Speak !" -but he spoke not : "wake T but still he slept. 

But yesterday, and who had mightier breath ? 

Ten thousand warriors by his word were kept 

In awe; he said, as the Centurion saith, 

*' Go,'' and he goeth ; " Come," and forth he stepped. 

The trump and bugle, till he spake, were dumb ; 

And now naught left him but the muffled drum. " 

For the third time since the formation of this Government, a Presi- 
dent of the United States has been stricken down by death, in the per- 
formance of his great duties. But unlike trie others, this comes unex- 
pectedly and violently — in a moment — from a deadly weapon in the 
hand of an assassin. And this band of fiendish conspirators, not 
content with that, they at the same time attempt the life of the chief 
counsellor of the President — the Secretary of State. There is evidence, 
they designed to assassinate all the chief officers of the nation, that 
thereby they might palsy the arm of the Government, and hurl us at 
once from the height, the majesty, and the order of our march, into 
confusion ami anarchy. God be praised that He has kept us from the 
depths of such a calamity ! Still, the blow which struck the man in 
Washington, falls heavily upon a nation's heart ; and the words of sad- 
dened praise uttered to-day are but the echoes of the thoughts that 
throng in the hearts of the millions that mourn him everywhere, where 
there are true and loyal people. 

Death is at all times a solemn event ; it touches both time and 
eternity : it terminates a physical existence, it opens a spiritual and an 
immortal one; it closes the earthly life, it introduces the christian to the 
heavenly. But this death, the solemn obsequies of which, we celebrate 
to-day, strikes the nation and the world with more than common sor- 
row and solemnity. We mingle our tears with those of the whole 
country, over the bier of the Chief Magistrate of a great nation, cut 
down in the midst of his years, by the enemies not only of our common 
country, but of humanity itself. And though we mourn his untimely 
end, yet we will ever cherish and honor his memory, and claim his 
fame for his whole country. Henceforth his history belongs not to this 
nation alone but the whole sisterhood of nations; and his name has 



become a part of our common inheritance. His memory is now safe — 
no human events will ever more affect it; the greal qualities, the 
private virtues, the public services — all that is precious in his memory, 
has received the seal of death. And 

" The love where death has set his seal. 
Nor age can chill, nor rival steal, 
Nor falsehood disavow." 

The secret of this illustrious man's strength and greatness, lay in his 
being honest and true, as well as intelligent and eloquent. That is, it 
lay in his being right hearted as well as right minded. 

He might have possessed the same clearness of judgment, in dis- 
cerning any practicable or desirable end, the same determination of 
purpose in adhering to his maturely adopted plan for working it out, 
and yet been as false and treacherous as Jefferson Davis, or the Arch 
Fiend himself, the first of traitors. Would these things alone, then, 
have made him what the loyal people of this nation have so universally 
called him V Never ! We have learned during this rebellion that a 
man may see very clearly a had end, and work with astonishing vigor 
and perseverance to accomplish that end. Such a man then cannot be 
truly great — can never be really strong. It is true, that without these 
more active qualities, mere rectitude of intention and goodness of heart 
might constitute a good man, but not a great man. And yet in these 
very elements of goodness lie the essential elements of greatness. The 
working powers of energy and will, are of no avail toward true and 
perfect manhood, without the truer material of greatness — that is, 
reliability. If a man has not that, (which is really honesty and good- 
ness) who will trust him ? Though he had the energy and the intelli- 
gence of Lucifer, who would let him work with them, or for them ? 
And I ask where is that reliability to be sought ? In the fickle changes 
of a man's self interest, in the declared submission to public opinion 
and popular will, so that a man is perpetually looking without, and 
never within for his rule of right and of action ? No ! To give real 
body and strength to human character, there must be the strong mind 
indeed ; but, it must be the strong mind acting harmoniously and 
responsively to the teachings of the right heart. " If the eye be sincjle 
then shall the whole body be full of light." Power alone is not great- 
ness — goodness alone is not greatness. But goodness and power, 
united so as to be one and inseparable — that constitutes true greatness 
And the people of this land saw it there, united two in one in the person 
of Abraham Lincoln, and therefore they have called him great. And 



we can truly say to-day, that it was mi honor to this people to have 
seen him as they did, and to have placed him, once and again, where 
they did. 

How important then that a man's heart should be right ; for if your 
hearts condemn you, know indeed, that God is greater than your hearts, 
and will more fully condemn you. We are apt to forget the great fact, 
that in the revelations of Christianity, judgment is not a thing which is 
to come, but is now ; that we are actually in the kingdom of the Great 
Judge, the God-man, who is near to us, and we near to Him. He near 
with his supplies of grace to help in every time of need — near, knowing 
from his human experience what man can do, as well as what he ought 
to do, knowing from His divine omniscience every thought and intent 
of the heart. It is not then, a remote Judge, and a remote judgment, 
with which we have to do, but one at hand. The final judgment of 
the great day is in fact, only the sentence educed by the sum of those 
judgments which have gone up day by day from the thoughts, and 
words, and works of each individual. How sad and fatal it is, then, 
that professing christians should suffer questions of expediency or policv 
or the opinions of men, to take the place of this simple accountability 
of the christian conscience to the great christian Judge. And how 
doubly sad that teachers in the church of Christ should cater to popular 
favor ami popular opinion. 

Seeing then, that we so easily fall into practical forgetfulness of the 
great judgement which ever standeth at the door of conscience, whose 
final awards we shall all assuredly meet, it is the business of reasonable 
men — it is the solemn duty of responsible christian men — to see to it 
that they are following the voice of God — that their feet are ever in the 
path of truth, and duty, and holiness ; and that whenever in God's 
providence, any event occurs which teaches a great lesson on this very 
subject, they study it devoutly and reverently. " It is the purpose of 
God, in troubling the still waters of common life, that we should notice 
the descent of the angel, and gather health and spiritual strength from 
the disturbed elements/* Such a visitation has now been made. 

The hand, that guides unseen the arrow of the archer through the 
joints of the harness, steadied and directed the hand of the assassin in 
the private box of the President in Ford's Theatre in Washington, last 
Friday evening. God was only doing, and suffering to be done, in the 
sudden removal of this distinguished person by the hand of violence, 
what he was just as really doing for him, and with him, every moment 
of his previous existence. Before he came to that great office, and at 
every instant of that momentous period of his life whilst he filled it, up 



to the very time when the great Judge of all the earth gave visible 
manifestations of his presence, and of what he had never ceased to do 
— it was no more true that he had then gone to his account, and that 
his great Judge will one day pronounce his final award, than, that 
every day he lived, he was going to it — the great Judge, though unseen, 
just as near to him, and the account continually going on, and the 
award being made. This is true of every human being; but its great 
and startling truth is unquestionably brought more nearly home to us 
when we have before us some noted instance like the present. A 
man whom we loved, and who seemed like a dear friend and loving 
father to us, cut off without a moment's warning in the midst of life, 
and surrounded only, he supposed, by friends. Wherever he was in 
life, and in whatever sphere he moved, the friendless had a Mend, the 
fatherless, a father, and the poor man, though unable to reward his 
kindness, found an advocate. For he was a counseWor whose talents 
were employed on the side of truth and righteousness ; whose voice, 
whether at the bar of justice, or in the halls of legislation, or in the 
council chamber at the White House was virtues' consolation ; and at 
the sound of which, oppressed humanity felt a secret rapture, the 
advocates of truth received a gladdening impulse, and the heart of 
injured innocence leaped for joy ! It was when the rich oppressed the 
poor — when the powerful menaced the defenceless — when truth was 
disregarded, or the eternal principles of justice violated — it was on 
such occasions as these, that he put forth all his strength. He was ;i 
patriot whose manly virtues never shaped themselves to circumstances, 
and whose integrity baffled the scrutiny of his bitterest enemies. He 
always stood amid the varying tides of party, firm, like the rock far 
out from land, lifting its majestic head above the waters, and remain- 
ing unshaken by the many storms and weaves which dash and beat upon 
it. And he was a friend who knew no guile, whose heart was trans- 
parent ; down deep in which, we could see fully rooted every tender 
and sympathetic virtue. And he was a man whose various worth even 
opposing parties acknowledged while alive, and now that he is dead, 
that he has been so ruthlessly torn from us, I trust, with sincere grief 
and sympathy they will unite to heap their honors and praises upon his 
memory. 

His life was characterized by a high sense of duty — by a steady pur- 
pose to do what he believed to be right, [it all times, and in all places. 
And in the performance of duty, nothing could move him — he marched 
directly and boldly upon the road where that (allied him; and he kept 



his faith with all men. Vou might dissent from Ids opinions — von 
might find fault with his judgment, hut not witli his integrity, for when 
ho took his position after mature deliberation he kept it : — his sense of 
duty sustained him, and opposition only served to make him the more 
steadfast in holding it. 

Suppose that more than four years ago, as he was lea vino- Springfield, 
I1L. the future records of time in the history of his eountrv had remained 
unknown to him. whilst a message from God had revealed the hour of 
his death ; — Suppose he had heard the voice of God saving: " I have 
brought you to tills great office, ami in the full career of its duties and 
whilst the burden of saving the nation is resting upon you, you shall 
die" It is not for any human being to say whether it would have 
changed or modified any of the acts of his presidential career; and per- 
haps T cannot pay him a higher tribute of praise, or s© fully express my 
individual estimation of his character than to declare my strong personal 
impression that it would not. 1 fully believe that every act of his 
official life was done under the sense of personal and official responsi- 
bility. 

Such a revelation would surely have given an awful solemnity to 
every decision — it would have suffered no veil to interpose to conceal 
motives, and no conflict or combination <»f interests to modify the one 
great purpose, or to repress the abiding conviction. Aye, to repress 
the conviction kt I am making up my own judgment, even my eternal 
judgment — and the judgment of man is nothing to me, except as it 
responds to the judgment of my conscience and my God. I must do 
my work — the messenger stands at the door and is knocking — the 
eternal Judge is there — the grave is waiting — it is my work which is to 
be done, which demands my time, my attention — and the instruments 
I use to do it, must not be those which others like best, but such as J 
believe will do the work most faithfully.'" 

Well, my hearers, we all have a kindred revelation — not indeed of 
the hour of death, but of the hour of judgment. It is a judgment not 
of years in perspective, but in the awful present. The eternal n&w is 
judging us now. It is true we know not the hour of death — it is not 
revealed ; but come when it will, it comes not as the hour of judgment, 
but as the hour which tells us that all judgment is at an end — the 
balance struck, the account made up, the recording angel's duty with 
regard to us ended. No more good works of faith and prayer, and 
repentance and holiness ! The blood of the everlasting covenant has 
sealed the soul for its final passage in the great inventory ! That blood 
which tells that it has paid the debt, or dnul>Jrcf it. 



10 

An<l as for that hour of death, w-b are not indeed told that it shall 
come this year, or next, or thereafter ; still we arc assured that it shall 
come some time, and it may come suddenly and unexpectedly. And 
there is not a day we live, that we are not told it by Grod's providence, 
which usually moves men's minds much more than his revelation. But 
if we indeed knew just the when, it would make us serious and thought- 
ful; and the great business of life would be to make ready for that 
hour. A warning voice comes to-day from our nation's Capitol; and 
the providence of God speaks to us then:-e: ,; Be ye also ready, for hi 
an hour ye think not, the Son of Man cometh." The providence of God 'i 
Yes, the providence of God. For there is no event however great or 
small, which is not under his direction and his control. He so orders 
and directs even the wrath of man. as to make it praise him, by hasten- 
ing the great cause of truth and righteousnes he has in the earth. 

At first we were startled and stupefied by the great crime which has 
lii-ought us together to-day ; and could hardly reconcile ourselves to the 
thought that the righteous and all wise Ruler of the nations, and 
Disposer of events, should suffer the hand of the assassin to rob us thus, 
of so indispensable a leader; and we thought our loss irreparable,, ami 
called it a great national calamity* But reflection led us rather to use 
the term, our great national affliction. For be assured God will thwart 
the designs of the wicked, will make them drink to the very dregs the 
cup they would press to the lips of others, ami in the end bring good 
out of this terrible bereavement. Perhaps we were becoming to much 
elated and self confident in view of our military successes and triumphs, 
placing to much confidence in our leader, and were raising men into the 
place of God, and forgetting that he alone gheth us the victory — th:ii 
it is his hand which rules the world and is guiding this nation amid the 
maddened elements which threatened its life. If we will now improve 
this afflictive dispensation of Almighty God to purposes at once salutary 
and beneficial to the great interests of the country — if we can feel that 
in this sudden and violent death of our patriot chieftain in the vigor of 
life, and in the full enjoyment of the highest honors — if we can feel 
the solemnity of this sudden call of an individual so esteemed, so illus- 
trious, so surrounded with all that could contribute to the greatness of 
man — if we can truly appreciate the lesson which such an unexpected 
dispensation is calculated to impart, then results the most beneficial to 
our country, and to ourselves, may flow from it. If it teach us to 
realize the comparative insignificance and weakness of man, and the 
littleness of all sublunarv things — if it enable us to see more clearlv 



11 

that this transitory lite in which arc cares, and toils, and conflicts— 
that this brief period is but a single step in the great series of infinite 
existence — a mere point, at which man p tuses to look around him for a 
moment, before he launches on eternity's boundless ocean — if we can 
rightly estimate ourselves, and lightly appreciate the duties which 
devolve upon us, we shall then indeed have extracted from this melan- 
choly event sonic of the lessons, beneficent and salutary, which, in the 
deep mysteries of an overruling Providence it was designed to impart. 

And although God from his eternal throne may not behold a nobler 
object on his footstool, than the man who loves his enemies, pities .their 
errors, and forgives the injuries they do him, and is ready to overlook 
their crimes ; yet he intends the Magistrate, as his servant, and the 
minister of law, to inflict its penalties, to bear not the sword in vain, 
and thereby become a terror to evil doers. And although the indomi- 
table courage of Abraham Lincoln — his unimpeachable honestv, — his 
Spartan simplicity and sagacity, — his frankness, kindness, moderation, 
and magnanimity, — his fidelity, — his generosity, and humanity to his 
enemies — the purity of his private life — the patriotism of his public prin- 
ciples,- -will never cease to be cherished in the grateful remembrance of 
all just men. ami all loyal and true hearted Americans; still the very 
fact that he was human, would lead us to expect him to err—but it 
was always through kindness of heart, on the side of virtue and com- 
passion. As the Chief Magistrate of a great nation, has he not ever 
been too lenient to rebels and assassins seeking the overthrow and the 
Aery life of that nation ? In his last public act, on the very day of his 
assassination, with the heads of the various departments around him, 
the telegrams tell us, he spoke very Mndfy of the chief of rebels who had 
handled the hosts of treason and sustained their power, and slaughtered 
by thousands our sons, our brothers, and our fathers, carrying mourning 
and lamentation to almost every fireside through the land, and guilty of 
the highest crime known among nations. And was there no danger in 
the clemency of his great heart, that the highest crime in the statutes of 
our country would go unredressed and unatoned V Were those, who 
had made it the policy of the government, they were attempting to 
establish at the sacrifice of ours, to murder in cold blood our soldiers, 
and inhumanly starve them to death in marshy stockades and loathsome 
dungeons, by the tens of thousands, to go unwhipped of justice '? Why 
the very humanity within us cries out, that it is meet that those who 
commit enormous crimes, should be visited with commensurate punish- 
ment ! It is the voice of our moral nature! It is an expression of 



12 

sympathy in the well being of society and the race. It is the onl\ 
protection of government and of life; and nothing will culm the pertur- 
bation of our moral nature — of the principle of justice within us in 
view of such heaven defying crimes, hut the infliction of a corres- 
ponding penalty. Law, with its rigorous sanctions, is a chief instru- 
ment in moral reformations ; and is one of the main elements in the 
means which both (rod and man must employ in meliorating the state 
of society, and in keeping order in the world. 

May we not here, then, tind another reason why, Me who ruleth among 
the nations, should slitter the bloody hand of the assassin to rob us of OUT 
l>cl<>ved President ? As I before remarked, they have murdered then- 
best friend. Already we hear a different sound emanating from our 
new Commander-in-Chief of the American armies! It sounds more 
like holding a tighter rein upon the principal abettors of treason and 
blood. It come*- from one who has seen the wake of desolation, and 
heard the wail of sorrow and suffering it has wrought, — from one 
agaiwst whom its mail waves have long beaten, and who knows more 
of the spirit and the character it has ever manifested. And he is one 
we trust and pray who will do right, and whom God lias trained, and 
fitted, and raised up for this very emergency. 

Let these thoughts, whilst they suggest some reasons why Grbd, in 
his allwise providence should suffer the hands of the wicked to involve 
us in so great and so sad a national bereavement, do not dissipate the 
sorrows we feel, nor the sympathy we express for an afflicted family 
and a mourning people. 

We lorrd this fallen chieftain and prince of our Israel; and we bear 
testimony to his untiring and patriotic efforts to restore the peace of 
our country by the supremacy of its laws. He has borne his honors 
meekly but firmly, ami ever been clear in his great office. 

But he has gone now ; — he has gone, — yet we may be sure, although 
we have him no longer for a guide and leader, that there is still that 
omniscient and infinite Power above us, exercising that eontroling and 
parentnl care, which has marked our progress all along through this 
terrible <|uadrennial conflict. I believe the great Governor of nations 
has, in a great measure, supplied the place of the departed, in our 
government ; and that the kind, beneficent and favoring presence of 
Almighty God will still be with us. and that we shall still be borne 
along triumphantly in the inarch of nations, and borne onward and 
upward by the hand of his ever sustaining Providence. 



13 



It is true President Lincoln is dead, and a great nation to-day 
mourns its loss; but rite God of Abraham Lincoln still fives, and they 
can never assassinate him ! We are sale in his keeping. The great 
cause of truth, of freedom and of righteousness is not lost, hut only 
another name added to the catalogue of its martyrs. 

Abraham Lincoln, we trust has entered into his rest — that rest 
which remaineth for the people of God. O what a blessed thought, 
amid our cares, and trials, and disappointments— and especially when 
wickedness and crime stalk through the land— that there is a place 
where there is no care, no sickness, no crime, no death ! 
• Were this frail world our final rest, 
Living or (-lying, none were blest. 
Beyond the flight of time, 
Beyond the reign of death, 
Ther< j surely is some blessed clime, 
Where HI'-- is not a breath ; 
Nor life's aiieetions, transient fire, 
"VVhose -park- fly upward arid expire. 
Our late President died a christian ; though he received the fatal 
wound, neither in a christian glare, nor in a christian atsnnhly. When 
he left Springfield, more than four years ago, he was not a christian. 
lie indeed felt the great responsibility '.of his position, and the weakness 
of mortal man. ami therefore requested God's praying children to 
remember him at the throne of grace. Subsequently God visited him 
by removing from his tender embrace a darling child- Iu his bereave 
ment he felt the \u-i'd of God's presence and consolation to sustain him, 
hut still found not the Saviour in his peace speaking favor and love. 
But nearly two vears ago, as he went out to the battle field at (iettys- 
burg, strewn with the wreck of conflict, ami covered with the wounded 
and the dying— there saw the holocausts of a nation's offering on the 
altar of liberty, and beheld how the christian soldier could cheerfully 
lie wounded and bleeding in his country's cause, and would readily 
give his life, and a thousand lives, if he had so many to give, for the 

land he loved, he then thought how little lie had given to that Saviour, 

who had done so much for him, who had even given his life for him, 
and kept him by his mighty power, and raised him to the illustrious 
position he then occupied ; and therefore, then and there, he resolved 
to be a christian and to give himself at once to the Great Redeemer of 
men ; and he did so. There he learned to love Jesus, and found peace 
in believing. blessed sight, which tilled heaven with rejoicing ! A 
great man, the leader of a mighty people bows mildly to the sceptre of 
Jesus. 



14 

And now this great man and prince in our Israel lias fallen ! A 
week ago, and he was the pride and the ornament of his country. He 
stood on an eminence, and glory and honor covered him. From that 
lofty eminence he has fallen — suddenly and forever fallen. His inter- 
course with this living, moving, breathing world is now ended ; and 
hereafter those who would find him, must seek him in the grave. 
There cold and lifeless- will be the heart, which so recently throbbed in 
friendship and love. There dim and sightless will be the eye, which so 
recently beamed with intelligence, and there closed forever those lips 
which so often gave utterance to thoughts that glow and words that 
burn. 

It is religion, however, that sheds the greatest glory on his character 
and his name. It is the only inheritance he has taken with him to the 
skies. It is all which can be enrolled of him among the archives of 
eternity. It is all which can make his name great in heaven. 

My hearers, death may come to yon suddenly and unexpectedly as it 
did to him. Will it find you ready, and with your christian armor on ? 
Go like him, and learn to love Jesus, and then it matters but little how 
and when he calls you hence. You are again reminded of the uncer- 
tainty of life, as to-day the mournful pageantry at Washington is 
reflected through the land, for this great man who has fallen by the 
desolating hand of a violent death ; and every loyal heart is sad, for we 
shall see him no more here — no more on this side of eternity. 

" His triumphs are o'er — he's gone to his rest, 
To the throne of his Maker, the home of the blest. 
How peaceful and calm he now rests on his bier ! 
Each heart droops in sadness, each eye sheds a tear. 
The hero, the statesman, his journey is done, 
All his cares now are over, his last battle won; 
Now sweetly he rests from his sorrows and fears, 
And leaves a proud nation in sadness and tears.' 



